STJ decides that Castelo de Areia operation was illegal

Dołączył: 10 Mar 2024 Posty: 1

Anonymous complaints cannot serve as the exclusive basis for the Court to authorize the breach of data confidentiality of any kind. On this basis, the th Panel of the Superior Court of Justice decided, this Tuesday (/), that all the evidence obtained in the Castelo de Areia operation from the widespread breach of the confidentiality of telephone data is illegal.

In practice, the operation collapsed, like a sandcastle. This is because the evidence in the case originated from the authorization of the Court that gave passwords to federal police officers to access telephone company databases, which was considered irregular.

The decision was taken by three votes to one. Minister BTC Number Data Maria Thereza de Assis Moura and the judges called Celso Limongi and Haroldo Rodrigues understood that the evidence that supported the complaint that arose from the operation was null. Only Minister Og Fernandes considered the operation legal.

Operation Castelo de Areia was launched in March to investigate financial crimes and embezzlement of public funds involving directors of construction companies and political parties. In December of the same year, judge Fausto Martin de Sanctis accepted part of the Public Ministry's complaint against three Camargo Corrêa executives.

Investigations into the operation had been at a standstill since January , when the Criminal Action against the directors was suspended following an injunction issued by the then president of the STJ, Minister Cesar Asfor Rocha. This Tuesday, three of the four ministers that make up the th Panel of the STJ accepted the two requests for Habeas Corpus filed by the defense of the accused, signaling that Asfor Rocha made the correct decision. The HC requests were filed by lawyers Alberto Zacharias Toron, Carla Domenico and Celso Vilardi, who made oral arguments when the case began to be judged.

The trial was resumed with the vote of the summoned judge Celso Limongi, who had requested a review of the appeal on March th. For Limongi, anonymous reporting does not, in itself, serve to violate any fundamental guarantee of citizens, as is the case with the confidentiality of telephone data.

The judge considered the breach of confidentiality determined by the Federal Court of São Paulo with the provision of passwords for federal police officers to access the data of any telephone company subscribers “unfounded”. According to Celso Limongi, an anonymous complaint should allow police authorities to look for signs of the crime reported anonymously and, only if they find them, ask the courts to break confidentiality.

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